On August 18, 2017, Edge Computing (Smart Manufacturing) Industry Development and Application Seminar 2017 was successfully held in Shenyang. The seminar, themed "Grow with Edge Computing", was hosted by the Edge Computing Consortium (ECC), held by Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and co-held by the Edge Computing Professional Committee of Chinese Association of Automation. The seminar was attended by over 200 representatives from renowned universities and research institutes, manufacturing enterprises, and Information Technology (IT), Information and Communications Technology (ICT), and automation solution providers inside and outside China. Yu Haibin, Chairperson of the ECC and Director of Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Wang Tianran, Deputy Director of the ECC Advisory Committee and Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, attended the seminar and each made a speech.

As the host of the seminar, Zeng Peng, Chairperson of the ECC's Technical Standards Group and Researcher of Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, announced that the Chinese Association of Automation has officially signed a strategic partnership contract with the ECC. Adhering to the principles of mutual benefit and trust, the Chinese Association of Automation and ECC leverage their own advantages in corresponding business fields, further strengthen cooperation in the automation field, jointly promote openness and collaboration in the Operation Technology (OT) and ICT industries, incubate best industry application practices, and promote secure and sustainable development of edge computing.

Zeng Peng also announced that the Chinese Association of Automation has approved the proposal of establishing the edge computing advisory committee and the committee is officially established. In the future, the edge computing advisory committee, under the leadership of the Chinese Association of Automation, will conduct in-depth research in fields related to edge computing, including edge computing system and architecture, smart sensing, edge network transmission, and smart information processing. The committee will also lead the development of edge computing, organize the application, formulation, and revision of Chinese national standards related to edge computing and the industry field, continuously optimize the industry standardization, and provide strong support for the development of smart manufacturing.

Keynote speeches were made at the seminar by Professor Dong Jingchen, an expert at the Manufacturing Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Valeriy Vyatkin, tenured professor of Aalto University, Professor Paulo Leitao, Leader of the IEEE P2660.1 smart industrial software system standards working group and expert of the multi-agent system (MAS), and experts from IT, CT, and OT vendors and other employing units including Huawei, Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang Siasun Robot & Automation Co., Ltd., Shanghai Jiao Tong University, PCITC, Sunny Intelligent Digital Factory, Brilliance Auto, ADLINK Technology Inc., and China Mobile Research Institute. They jointly discussed the application and future development trend of edge computing in the smart manufacturing field.

Edge computing, following cloud computing and Big Data, is another emerging technology in this newly developed field. Edge computing is listed in Gartner's 2017 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies report, and is an important technology for enabling future enterprise digital platforms and new business models. Edge computing technology greatly promotes the development of smart manufacturing, especially during this latest industrial revolution. To streamline resources of the government, enterprises, academies, research institutes, and users and promote the digital innovation and application implementation of edge computing in all industries, Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huawei, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, Intel, ARM, and iSoftstone jointly proposed to establish the ECC on November 30, 2016. The ECC developed rapidly in the past six months, and now has more than 100 members. The ECC is dedicated to building a platform for industry coordination, openness, innovation, and industry practice and modeling. More industry partners are welcome to join the ECC to jointly promote sound and sustainable development of edge computing and open up a new era of edge computing.